to a customer’s Tweet. The moment illustrates how willing people are to engage and follow a mixture of accounts on Twitter. It also adds weight to @Nielsen research that reports 59% of UK users follow brands.

The research, conducted recently for Twitter UK by @Nielsen, found that not only do UK Twitter users follow brands; they are eclectic, interested in a wide variety of brands ranging from automotive, fashion and finance to technology, video games and many more.

One of the key insights @Nielsen discovered is Twitter users following brands are keen to hear more from those brands. This suggests there is a major opportunity gap waiting to be filled by brands that can develop engaging accounts.

For instance, 22% of UK Twitter users currently follow gaming brands, and 62% want to hear more from these types of accounts in the future. Similarly, 10% follow financial brands, and 40% say they are keen for more. The gap is equally sizeable when it comes to car companies: 11% follow a brand and 42% say they are open to hearing more from brands.

These numbers are echoed across Europe. @Nielsen found in Spain 67% of users follow brands, in the Netherlands 49% of users follow brands and in France 47% do.

Aside from following brands, people like to read about what our Twitter network is buying, and tweet about what we are spending our own cash on too. As many as 50% read about what others are buying and 31% tweet about the purchases they have made.

As you can see in our infographic below, there is a range of reasons for people to follow brands. The biggest reason is the simplest: 55% of UK Twitter users say they follow a brand because they like it. @Nielsen found similar results for Spain, the Netherlands and France as you can see in those infographics.

Twitter has also proved to be a good place for special offers and exclusive deals, and therefore the number two reason why people choose to follow brands.